A few weeks ago I interviewed (alongside my co-host on Newstalk ZB's The Two, Pam Corkery) the last remaining Gibb brother, Bee Gee Barry Gibb. A feature article based on this interview will be appearing in New Zealand's number one current affairs magazine The Listener in January ahead of Barry's concert at the Mission in Napier on February 23rd, but until then, below is the full transcript of the interview.While the upcoming feature article focuses on the three themes of family, faith and the future, in this transcript you will also learn that it was the Hollies more than the Beatles who inspired the Bee Gees to leave Australia and return to England, plus the sometimes thankless role Barry played as the elder brother. This includes an epiphany he had as a child while sitting on the pier at Redcliffe in Brisbane with brothers Robin and Maurice about either a life of crime or music. Luckily for them and for fans like me (not to mention their main victim Woolworths), they chose the latter.
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
TIM & PAM: This is yourfirst solo tour, but you’ve had a couple of warm-up gigs including a concert atthe Hard Rock in Miami – what was that like?
BARRY: We did like an hourat the DRI which is the Diabetes Research Institute as a charity show two daysbefore the Hard Rock and that kicked us up another level and we did like anhour and half at the Hard Rock and that pretty much beat the ol’ girl up. And thisis a great band, Timmy it’s a great band. Forget about me, this is the most amazingband and we’ve got Maurice’s daughter Sammy, and we’ve my eldest son Stephen onlead singer who also sings fantastic. So it’s a show for all ages I’d say.
TIM & PAM: And this is an interview for all ages! For you is thisabout discovering the next part of the Gibb dynasty?
BARRY: I just want to knowwhat the next episode is and I just want to be able to find out, as corny as itsounds, who I am. Am I a member of a group that no longer exists? Or am I thesongwriter and the singer that I can still be? And so I’m out there on anadventure, on a sentimental journey, a sojourn; I want to go and reflect, to gowhere we lived as kids, I want to see New Zealand again and I’ve heard aboutthis winery and I’ve gotta’ go there! So that’s me in search of me.
TIM & PAM: Will that bean archeological dig!?
BARRY: Ha! I might findsome old bones! All I can say is I’m hungry to play, the musicians who are withme are impeccable and it’s hard to really steer down the wrong track. I’m doingthe songs I’ve loved and the songs we’ve written together all my life so Ishould think for me, it’s going to be an ultimate pleasure just to be on stage.And wherever I look and wherever I go on the stage, my brothers will be withme.
TIM & PAM: I just thinkit is the best idea that you have your family involved in this tour…
BARRY: There are going tobe Gibbs in the wings, Gibbs involved in the technology and it’s just a wholemess of Gibbs!
TIM & PAM: You knowthat Australians make fun of New Zealanders! Is that true for you too!?
BARRY: No! I think NewZealand is magnificent. When we were children we worked with a lot of Maorislike the Maori Troubadours in Surfers’ Paradise and with Prince Tui at theChevron across the road from the Beachcomber and we all hung out together andwe learned an awful lot and it’s those days I harken back to. Let’s face, NewZealand is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, it’s just thatit’s far away so Americans don’t quite appreciate it, but it is.
TIM & PAM: Being thatthis tour is about going back to where it all began, let’s go back to yourfirst number one hit in Australia and New Zealand, Spicks And Specks. What can you remember about the writing of thatsong?
BARRY: I remember that wewere doing sessions in Hurstville with a gentleman called Ossie Byrne who sortof felt sorry for us because we couldn’t get any studio time. He had a littlestudio behind a butcher shop. So we were peeling off songs and writing andworking all night and playing all night and there are a whole bunch of songsfrom those sessions. One of those songs was SpicksAnd Specks and one thing lead to another and it just worked out. We didn’tknow it was going to be a hit until Nat Kipner came along, who was the head ofSpin Records. He took that whole bunch of songs and made that into an album andwe sent those songs to NEMS and to England to see if anyone was interested. AndSpicks And Specks did everything wedreamed it could do in Australia and New Zealand, but they were not interestedin it in England or in Europe. They just thought that we’ve had enough ofgroups, they weren’t singing any more groups, so we thought, well, maybe that’strue. But it didn’t turn out to be so.
TIM & PAM: As children,how much did you plan for the future, like did you practice your acceptancespeeches at the Grammys?
BARRY: Ha ha! Well, firstof all we didn’t know about Grammys. People like Elvis, Johhny O’Keefe and ColJoye were just coming on the scene when we arrived in Australia, or they’d beenaround a couple of years, but we were hearing them for the first time, so itwas nothing like that. It was how do we get some work? How do we sustain ourfamily? And that was the reality of it. We didn’t have any money so findingwork, any work, was the key. So working in hotels, in RSLs later in Sydney, atthe rugby league clubs – places like that. But you got about $20 a show,sometimes less, but it put food on the table. If you fell in love with a shirtyou saved up for it and life was just like that. As a child, it was the bestyears ever, for me I would want that on every child.
TIM & PAM: The older Iget the more amazing I find it that you were able to convince your parents tomove from Australia back to England when you were still teenagers. How did youconvince them that it was the right thing to do?
BARRY: I think they got asniff of it. We were watching the Easy Beats and the Seekers go back to Englandand having great success and it was really the Beatles yes, but the Holliesmore. We loved the Hollies and the Four Tunes. Remember the Four Tunes? It’sterrible [that people don’t talk about them anymore] because they were probablythe best vocal group I ever heard. They did that song You’ve Got Your Troubles. Anyway, it was the Hollies, the FourTunes and the Beatles that convinced us we got do it. We could do the harmoniesand we could go back there and take a shot and that was sort of what we did.And typical of the whole journey we were told along the way we couldn’t makeit. "Don’t worry about it boys, you just need to get a job, don’t worry aboutit." And we wanted to be discovered! We didn’t know what it meant, but we wantedto be discovered.
TIM & PAM: In a recentinterview you mentioned how Robin and Maurice were always anxious to keephaving hits and that you would try and tell them…
BARRY: …“It’s OK!” Theywere always in a panic. Robin was always in a panic about having yet one morehit record and we’d reached a stage in life when radio really wasn’t ready toplay a new single by the Bee Gees – we’d passed that age-fit area where youcould appeal to young kids. We’ve always had that trouble! We couldn’t appealto adults when we were kids and we couldn’t appeal to kids when we were older.
TIM & PAM: That said,is all you’ve achieved really enough for you?
BARRY: It’s not enough forme because all I ever think about is music, apart from my family. I don’t evenhave a hobby – my whole life is music and my children. Music is always rightthere and I can’t think of anything else and I can’t stop writing songs. Themusic doesn’t stop. A group can evaporate and members can pass away, but themusic mustn’t stop and that’s my job.
TIM & PAM: So even now,ideas could be popping into your head for songs?
BARRY: My nature ofsongwriting is you could say anything to me during this conversation and I’llmake a note of it as a title of a song. That’s how I function. People saythings.
TIM & PAM: For die-hardfans, they would love for you to do a new album. There is even the suggestionfor you to add your voice and production to unreleased Robin songs. What isnext for you?
BARRY: What really can bedone will be done, but this show is a celebration of my brothers and my familyand the next real thing, what I’d really love to do is to put on the bestpossible tribute for my brothers that has ever been put on. And the only way Ican do that is to reach out to the artists that I love the most and to get themto do it, to make it a bigger tribute than has ever been. And that will be thenext stage.
TIM & PAM: For you, youare almost an example of how terrible it can be [to lose family members]. Doyou think we can learn from it?
BARRY: The last 10 yearshave just been terrible. Losing Maurice was a real shock because we lost him intwo days. From being perfectly fine, no sign of illness, nothing. And we lostAndy in England – he had a heart seizure and was in hospital near Robin’s houseand he passed very quickly and then it became Robin. And when Robin became ill,OR when I found out Robin was ill which was along time in – it was about twoand half years before I knew he was ill. And then he passed. And so I’ve lostall my brothers. And the hardest thing of all is for Mum, not for me. I candeal with it.
TIM & PAM: Well I hopethat your Mum can take solace from the fact her boys have had the mostastonishing successes. I’ve got a list of some scarcely believable stats, likethe second most successful songwriter of all time after Paul McCartney, 21different songs as songwriters to hit US or UK #1, 220 million records sold,only songwriters to have five songs in the US top 10 at the same time and Iknow those are only numbers and people are people, but that said, you’ve gotfive wonderful children a lovely lady in Linda as your wife…(Barry interjects during this list of achievements, humbly saying "Oh thank you Tim, thank you.").
BARRY: We’ve been marriednow for I’d say 46 years if you count the three years we stayed together beforewe got married. We were married in 1970 and I guess you can do the math fromthere. We lived together before that and so Linda’s seen everything. Linda,along with me, has seen everything you can see if you’re a pop group on therise. She never missed anything and that’s something to take great comfortfrom. We can talk to each other about any single instance in our lives and whathappened to the group and she was there. We share all that and we’ve got fivewonderful children and we’ve got six wonderful grandchildren so what can youask for.
TIM & PAM: How hasLinda provided solace for you?
BARRY: She is a tower ofstrength. And she’s always right behind me and she’s either going to give me atap on the head or a kick up the ass. And both of those things work! Becauseshe will say, “You know you’ve gotta’ get yourself together, you’ve gotta’ pullyourself out of this and you’ve gotta’ get into your music and you’ve gotta’get back into what you were doing, NO MATTER WHAT. And so she’s always been thattower of strength and I love her and I love all my family. And we’ve reallyflowered. This family has grown. We’ve got a Swedish arm, a Jewish arm of thefamily, a Latvian arm of the family and another Jewish arm of the family, it’sabsolutely crazy! But the family has grown and grown and we all know each otherand love each other and I’ve got some of the most beautiful women in the worldin my family. And so someone was smiling on me.
TIM & PAM: Yourutterances on family are lovely and seem almost old-fashioned…
BARRY: I understand that mythoughts on family are not the norm, but they’re the norm for us. When we allcame together as a family you’d have to say that would be about 1967 and we’vebeen together ever since and enjoyed the trip ever since. Yes, it’s oldfashioned, but I am old fashioned and so is Linda. We’re very happy with theway things were before the computer came along!
TIM & PAM: As for beingold-fashioned?
BARRY: You can be oldfashioned, it’s not a crime. You can love very, very old songs and I love allkinds of old songs. I love immigrant songs that the Irish and the Scottishpeople brought to America before bluegrass. Just lately I got to work withRicky Skaggs at the Grand Ole Opry.
TIM & PAM: I was justgoing to mention him. It really seemed like he took you under his wing and thatperformance of How Can You Mend A BrokenHeart was probably the most emotional version of that song I’ve ever heard…
BARRY: Oh thank you Tim,thank you. He was helping me through that darkest period. He is by nature adevout Christian and he took me there and made me understand. Letting me dothose shows, knowing how much I love that music….You know they’re very pure,they don’t let people play there if they don’t think it’s right, but there I amat the Grand Ole Opry and he just put me under his wing and we had a ball. Butwhen I finished doing that, my love for that kind of music is in deep, it’s indeep. And if you hear an album out of me in the future it will be a greatmixture of that kind of music and Mr. Skaggs will be on that album. I wrote himthe song Soldier’s Son and I think itwill be on TV soon – I’m waiting for that commitment and it needs to happenbefore we go to Australia so that we can get it in the can, but I think theywant a Letterman show.
TIM & PAM: In thatrecent Australian TV interview you told a story about being on the pier atRedcliffe in Brisbane as kids and telling your brothers that the three of youwould never steal again. How serious were you?
BARRY: Dead serious. Don’tforget they’re three years younger than me and we were three kids and I wasgetting more and more worried that we were going to get in trouble with thepolice because we were always shoplifting. Especially at Woolworths becauseit’s easy, but Woolworths is gone now, but it was very easy. We used toshoplift all kinds of things and one day it hit me real hard that we could dothis and go to jail, or we could make up our minds to really make that attemptto become famous. I gave them that lecture half way down the pier at Redcliffeand I said whatever we’ve got in our pockets that we’ve stolen, throw it intothe sea now. And we did that so there’s a number of pen knives, false rings,things that you wouldn’t bother stealing anyway and I can point to exactlywhere we threw them and they’re probably still there.
TIM & PAM: Do you thinkthat if it had been you who’d gone and they who’d lived, they would’ve said, “Ifit hadn’t been for him…..”
BARRY: I don’t know.
TIM & PAM: Well itseems like you’ve been a terrific older brother…
BARRY: Well, I’ve been theolder brother and I’ve lived the role of the older brother so whilst that’s notalways appreciated, that’s the way it was. Keeping us all out of trouble,sometimes not helping when we got in trouble, but always trying to keep us outof trouble. As time went on I sort of took over the oversight of the businessbecause nobody else wanted to do it. That way I learnt all about publishing,all about the business and so everything seemed to happen for the right reason,but you’re not supposed to be the eldest brother, you’re just supposed to be abrother. So over the years Maurice and Robin didn’t like that very much, no.But someone’s got to do it and I was left holding the can if that’s the word.
TIM & PAM: Thearguments that you had…it seems like you have tremendous regret…
BARRY: The conflicts for uscame much later on and mainly because of advisors. Mainly because in the earlydays we were just one family, just one family. You know, Mum and Dad, the threeof us, Andy, my oldest sister Lesley who still lives in Australia. But that wasone family. And since we all got married, you’re suddenly faced with fourfamilies because Andy got married too. And that changed a lot of things becauseall the wives have an opinion about their husband and so we had to deal withthat kind of conflict, like “Why isn’t my husband heard more?” “Why isn’t myhusband getting to sing more songs than say either Robin or Barry does?” We hada lot of that kind of thing and we had to deal with that. It was very difficultbecause we were actually quite complex people. And these issues came easy. Fourfamilies will do it.
TIM & PAM: Back tosomething you said about Ricky Skaggs and also something the late Billboardmagazine editor Timothy White said about the Bee Gees, saying that even if itwas implicit rather than explicit, that the spirituality that ran through anumber of your songs was a large part of your appeal. I think of songs like Too Much Heaven, Spirits Having Flown and even a song called Nothing Could Be Good where you directly mention the Almighty. Wasthat just a temporary thing that was important for you at that time or something that has carried through?
BARRY:Religion in and of itself and spirituality are the absolute pure tools of asongwriter. For instance, if you listen to mountain music or immigrant music orbluegrass music, religion was the only subject. So when you listen to that kindof music you realise they didn’t have anything else but religion. So religionover the years and through rock ‘n’ roll and through people like ElvisPresley….listen to him singing gospel music, c’mon….it never went away, itnever will and the idea of true faith is behind every artist that ever gets tothe place they want to be.
TIM & PAM: I waslistening to some of your music yesterday and I cried. What’s it like havingthat effect on people?
BARRY: Well it affects me.That’s the x-factor, if there is an x-factor, it’s the song that makes you cryor the song that makes you laugh, or the song that goes down deep inside youand never leaves. That to me is the x-factor or the hidden element that makeseverybody love a song.
When we wrote How Can You Mend A Broken Heart in 1970,it was a number one record in America, but it was number one nowhere else. Itwas never a hit anywhere else and since 1970, in it’s own way and on it’s ownit became one of the biggest songs we’d ever written. So it’s not about radio,it’s not about whether you’re getting played or not. A song will live in theether, it will just live there and people will get to know it. You know thesong You Are My Sunshine? You can’ttell me what number it ever made in the charts – it didn’t! But the whole worldknows that song. So there’s that side of it.
TIM & PAM: (Generalthank yous and a mention of previous interviews Tim and Barry have donetogether (this being the fifth since 2005) with Barry saying his favourite wasin London in 2009).
BARRY: I dearly hope to seeboth of you. Thank you for always being there for me and thank you for caring,both of you. It’s a wonderful thing – that’s what makes it work.
Afterword: There are literally dozens upon dozens of lesser known Bee Gees songs which fans argue have as much artistic merit as those from their long list of hits. Here is a song from 1981's beautiful Living Eyes album called Don't Fall In Love Me which features a stunning Robin lead vocal plus a Barry, Robin and Maurice sung chorus to rank with the best harmonies they ever recorded. Enjoy.
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder